John Jordan (poet)
| birth_place = Dublin | death_date = June | death_place = Cardiff, Wales | occupation = Poet, Writer, Critic | nationality = Irish | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | education = University College Dublin; Pembroke College, Oxford | influenced = | signature = | website = }} John Jordan (1930-1988) was an Irish poet. Life Jordan was born in Dublin on 8 April 1930. He was educated at Synge Street CBS, and then at University College, Dublin (UCD). In his teens he acted on the stage of the Gate Theatre, Dublin. In 1953 the young Irish artist Reginald Gray was commissioned by UCD to design the decor and costumes for their production of "The Kings Threshold" by W.B. Yeats. The leading role was given to Jordan. During the preparations for the production Gray started a portrait of Jordan, which he never finished. This work now hangs in The Dublin Writers Museum, Ireland. Jordan won a Scholarship in English and French to Oxford University from UCD, and attended Pembroke College, Oxford. In the mid-1950s he returned to UCD as a lecturer in English and taught there until the end of the 1960s. He also lectured on sabbatical leave at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John/s, and briefly at Princeton University. He was a celebrated literary critic from the late 1950s until his death. He was also a short-story writer, a poet and a broadcaster. In 1962 he re-founded and edited the literary magazine Poetry Ireland. In this journal, he introduced a number of poets who were to become quite famous later, including Paul Durcan, Michael Hartnett and Seamus Heaney. This first series of Poetry Ireland lasted until 1968–69. In 1981 he became the first editor of the new magazine published by the Poetry Ireland Society, called Poetry Ireland Review. Jordan died in June, 1988 in Cardiff, Wales, where he had been participating in the Merriman Summer School. Recognition Jordan's Collected Poems (Dedalus Press) and Collected Stories (Poolbeg Press) were edited by his literary executor, Hugh McFadden, and published in Dublin in 1991. His Selected Prose, Crystal Clear, also edited by McFadden, was published by Lilliput Press in Dublin in 2006. Jordan's Selected Poems, edited with an Introduction by Hugh McFadden, was published in February 2008 by Dedalus Press. Publications Poetry *''Patrician Stations''. Dublin: New Writers Press, 1971. *''A Raft From Flotsam: Versifications, 1948-1974''. Dublin: Gallery Press, 1975. *''Blood and Stations''. Dublin: Gallery Press, 1976. *''With Whom Did I Share The Crystal? Poems''. Portmarnock, Co. Dublin: St. Beuno's Press, 1980. *''Collected Poems'' (edited by Hugh McFadden). Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1991. *''Selected Poems'' (edited by Hugh McFadden). Dublin: Dedalus Press, 2008. Short fiction *''Yarns''. Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland: Poolbeg Press, 1977. *''Collected Stories'' (edited by Hugh McFadden). Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland: Poolbeg Press, 1991. Non-fiction *''The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature''. Dublin: Mercier Press / Radio Telefís Éireann, 1977. *''Crystal Clear: The selected prose''. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2006. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Jordan, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 13, 2014. See also *List of Irish poets References * Essay and poem on Patrick Swift, Veronica Jane O’Mara (ed.), PS...of course- Patrick Swift 1927-83, with other contributions on Swift by George Barker, Anthony Cronin, Patrick Kavanagh, John McGahern, John Ryan, C. H. Sisson, Katherine Swift, David Wright (Gandon Editions, Kinsale, 1993) *An Anthology from X (Oxford University Press 1988). X (magazine) ran from 1959-62. Edited by the poet David Wright & the painter Patrick Swift. Contributions from Jordan, Francis Bacon, David Bomberg, W.H. Auden, Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh, et al. Notes External links ;About *John Jordan at Irish Writers Online *John Jordan at Ricorso.net. *In Memorium, John Jordan at Irish Literary Review (excerpt) Category:1930 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Irish poets Category:People from County Dublin Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets